The theme of God’s steadfast love is the key to many of the Psalms. It’s the key to joy and happiness and true life. Jesus said, “I’ve come that you might have life, and have it abundantly.” That abundant life is lived only in the light of God’s steadfast (faithful) love for us. Once we’ve grasped that, we’re on our way to the abundant life: The life of the highest quality possible while in the flesh, and the life of the greatest quantity in all eternity. God “so loved the world that he gave His only Son” and “whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.”

I repeated the phrase, “It makes me feel like dancing!” last Sunday because the slightest comprehension of God’s great love moves us to rejoice. Dancing is often the symbolic response of rejoicing in the scriptures. Moses did it! David did it! Miriam did it! Ecclesiastes 3 tells us that there is “a time to dance.” In Matthew 11:17, Jesus rebukes the religious leaders who couldn’t tell the difference between the time for dancing and the time for mourning. The final Psalm, Psalm 150, includes dancing along with instrumental music as key elements of worship. It says, “Praise him with tambourines and dancing. Praise him with stringed instruments and flutes. Praise him with clanging cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD!”

I’m not talking about dancing the night away! That kind of dancing is different than the kind of dancing motivated by an understanding of the depth of God’s love for us. It’s a daytime kind of dancing, not the night time kind of dancing. It’s not the night time kind of dancing that leaves me worn out and tired in the morning, if not hung over! It’s the kind of dancing that’s praise to the God of the heavens and earth that empowers us for life. It doesn’t drain us! It recharges us. And this is the key, it’s always based on the comprehension of the great depth of God’s steadfast love as seen in the clear night skies and more perfectly on the cross of Calvary. Thus, Moses, in Psalm 90, after lamenting the shortness of this life in the flesh, prays in verse 14, “Satisfy us in the morning with your faithful love so that we may shout with joy and be glad all our days.”

It’ makes me feel like dancing!

Chuck
“Teach me your ways, O Lord, that I may live according to your truth! Grant me purity of heart, so that I may honor you.” (Psalm 86:11)